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AN ADDRESS. 



Delivered Before the Faculty and Students 



OBERLIN COLLEGE. 



Twenty-first Day of October, 

1892, 

"COLUMBUS DAY," 



Judge C. C. BALDWIN, LL. D. 



President of the WEbXERN Reserve Historical Society. 



Reprinted from the Cleveland Leader, of October 23rd, 1892, 



e: i^ :^ 



AOG 17 1914 




Ladies and Gentlemen. 

We are assembled to-day to commemorate an event which, 
with its results, is the most important in the history ot 
present civilized man, excepting only the Christian religion. 

The opening of so large a new world, now the center of 
wealth and prosperity, with all its varied experiences, makes 
its history much more practical, instructive and interesting 
to us than all the history of the old world. 

We are here to remember especially the event. If some 
other than Columbus had made the discovery we should still 
be here as now. Yet every, or nearly every, great event in 
the world's history, however, has its hero, and Columbus was 
a man of great qualities. 

All that can be known of his life and surroundings has 
been thoroughly studied, and I can tell you nothing you 
could not otherwise easily learn. His own writings were 
abundant. Irving first in Spain, and after Varnhagen of 
Germany, and Harrisse, of Paris, everywhere have exhaust- 
ively studied his life and times. 

In our own country that stupendous monument of learn- 
ing, The Narrative and Critical History of America, edited by 
Mr. Justin Winsor, has largely and amply revealed him. 
This was preceeded by the full, careful, charming narrative of 
Irving and has been followed by Mr. Winsor's life of Colum- 
bus, a careful, broad and critical work, and later by Mr. 
John Fiske's Discovery of America — a model of learning and 
criticism, and there is just from the press selections of what 
is of most interest in the writings of Columbus, edited by 
Mr. Paul Leicester Ford. The life of none has been more 
studiously exhibited with such wealth of literary talent, of 
learning and of illustration in text and engraving. 

Columbus was born about the year 1436, in the city of 
Genoa. His father had been engaged in business and in 
tavern keeping near Genoa — ending his days in Genoa. 
Although the old gentleman died in debt he had a care in 
the education of his children, and Christopher had an edu- 
cation in Latin (then the language of general learning) and 
in navigation. It is said he was a student at the University 
at Pavia. 



-4 — 

All his surroundings favored his after career. I have 
never been to Genoa but once, and then most unfortunately 
I was detained m the harbor on an Italian steamer unable to 
land because my passport was vised to Naples. 

But all Genoa, with its noble buildings rises from the sea 
and looks down upon it. In the evening the harbor was 
filled with small boats and the soft musical songs of the 
boatmen coming from every direction were like the sweetest 
opera — without the instruments that so often interrupt. If 
Genoa seems fascinating from the sea one can well imagine 
that no harbor adds more fascination to a city. The young 
active mind could hardly have failed to have a strong taste 
for the sea, and we are not surprised that in after days, 
when he was providing for his future name in the disposi- 
tion of a tenth and an eighth of the revenue of what he 
might well expect to be a vast empire — he provided "to have 
and maintain in the city of Genoa one person of our lineage 
to reside there with his wife and appoint him a sufficient 
revenue to enable to live decent as a person closely con- 
nected with the family of which he is to be the root and 
basis in that city." 

The commerce of the world had already grown. The ex- 
ceedingly remunerative trade of the east was carried on by 
Genoa and Venice. 

So that as an educated youth, with taste and experience 
on the sea, where the riches of a wealthy city came from 
commerce, and that largely with the East Indies, his mind 
from early childhood was intelligently upon the problems of 
navigation. New maps and new routes of navigation were 
extremely practical matters, and the people of Genoa lived 
in such problems. 

Columbus had skill as a draughtsman and took to the raak- 
ng of charts for seamen's use, a business that made it his 
daily life to consider the advanced problems of naviga- 
tion, for when the maps used were not printed, but drawn 
by hand, the making of every map caused such questions'to 
arise and each customer would have personal experience to 
relate. There must have been a close competition for the 



highest qualities of a navigator. By 1470 Columbus had be- 
come well known for his skill in charts. 

It was no new theory that the e^rth was round. Not 
that the general public had such beliefs. The ignorant 
were very likely to believe firmly the evidence of their 
senses, that the world was flat and there were geographers 
who claimed even that the Holy Scriptures taught that the 
earth was flat and who berated the blasphemies of those who 
stultified themselves in talking of antipodes and who 
believed that trees grew downward and rain fell upward. 

But Aristotle, Seneca, Strabo, Roger Bacon and many 
other learned men had held that the earth was round and it 
was the opinion of some of the most learned geographers 
of the time of Columbus. 

The trade of the east sought an all water route free from 
interruption on the way, and the question whether Africa 
could be sailed around had by 1487 just been settled after 
much questioning, and many doubts whether water ex- 
tended round it on the south, whether if a vessel sailed 
round it could sail back, and even whether it was possible 
to cross the torrid zone. 

Credulous Herodotus related, that it had been said that be- 
fore his time Africa had been circumnavigated, but this 
story was not believed even by him for the very reason 
that makes it believed in these times. The voyager reported 
that the sun appeared to be to the north of the mariners, a 
thing Herodotus deemed impossible. 

Bacon's views were presented in a volume entitled, Imago 
Mundi, and the copy belonging to Columbus has in it his 
own numerous annotations. 

In 1471, the equator had been crossed. In 1484, the Congo 
was reached by Diego Cam, who the next year sailed 1,000 
miles further. 

In 1487, Dias had sailed around the south of Africa, but 
not to India. In his report he named its south cape. Stormy 
Cape, but King John II., of Portugal, named it the " Cape of 
Good Hope," believing an ocean route to the Indies was 
found. 



On the vessel of Dias during this voyage was Bartholomew 
Columbus, the intimate brother of Christopher. 

The Indies had ftot yet been reached by water and the 
next year Bartholomew was in England advocating the trial 
of the other route already urged by Christopher. Columbus 
was already in Spain from 1484, and spoke of the years 
from 1484 to 1492 as " dragged out in disputations." 

As early as 1470, both the brothers had been in Portugal, 
map making and sailing, and both had sailed down -the 
African coast, and Columbus afterwards says he had been 
from the first advocating his enterprise. 

Alphonso, King of Portugal, was actively seeking the way 
to the Indies. Probably through the influence of Columbus 
he applied as early as 1474 to Toscanelli, an eminent Floren- 
tine astronomer, to know if there could be a shorter route 
than around Africa. 

In a letter from Toscanelli to Columbus, dated 25th June, 
1474, he not only seemed to think the voyage to the East 
Indies possible, but he had even sent a map to the king. 

Columbus evidently wanted Toscanelli's full influence, and 
a subsequent letter of Toscanelli is more explicit when he 
says: 

" I regard as noble and grand your project of sailing from 
East to West according to the indications furnished in the 
map I sent you and which would more plainly appear upon 
a sphere." He is pleased to see " that the voyage has be- 
come not only possible but certain, fraught with honor as it 
must be and inestimable gain and most lofty fam.e among 
all Christian people." Toscanelli further does not wonder 
that Columbus "you who are of great courage and the whole 
Portuguese nation which has always had men distinguished 
in all such enterprises are now inflamed with desire to exe- 
cute the said voyage." 

The map of Toscanelli was the companion of Columbus 
upon his first voyage. The original map is lost but it was 
fully described and may be quite accurately replaced and is 
very much like the Martin Behaim globe of 1492. On it the 
East Indies and Japan are laid down with supposed accuracy. 



— 7 — 

Toscanelli made Asia much too wide. Columbus esti- 
mated the distance to Japan to be not over 2,500 miles, 
bj the west and the whole Access of his scheme was 
upon the finding a short route to the Indies. It was as neces- 
sary to the success of the scheme of Columbus to show that 
the Atlantic ocean was not too wide, and the Behaim Globe 
of 1492, by a friend of Columbus, represents the distance as 
less than that of Toscanelli. Such was the belief of Columbus 
himself. In a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, Columbus 

quotes old authorities, including scripture. He cites Pliny 
and says: 

" The master of scholastic learning, in commenting upon 
Genesis, says that the waters are not very extensive and that 
although when they were first created they covered the earth, 
they were yet vaporous, like a cloud, and that afterwards 
they became condensed and occupied but small space, and in 
this notion Nicolas de Lira agrees. Aristotle says that the 
world is small and the water very limited in extent and that 
it is easy to pass from Spain to the Indies and this is con- 
firmed by Avenruyz," (an Arabian of the 12th century), "and 
by Cardinal Pedro de Aliaco," (author of Columbus' favorite 
book, Imago Mundi), -'who in supporting this opinion shows 
that it agrees with that of Seneca, and says that Aristotle 
had been enabled to gain information respecting the world 
by means of Alexander the Great, and Seneca by means of 
N'ero and Pliny, through the Romans, all of them having 
expended large sums of money and employed a vast number 
of people in diligent inquiry concerning the secrets of the 
world." 

He proceeds to quote other authorities still older. To 
rely upon authorities so old seems strange, but they were 
almost all there were, the " Dark Ages " having intervened. 

If Columbus himself believed as appeared in his favorite 
the "Image of the World," the circumference of the world 
to be 20,500 miles the distance would be much less than 
reality. 

Although Toscanelli, in 1474, thought the voyage would 
shortly be made, Columbus was yet to press his design for 



— 8 — 

eighteen long years. Eleven years, until 1485, he remained 
in Portugal with hopes often disappointed. 

That was the leading nation in discovery, but it was busy in 
wars, in the adventures in navigation already made and the 
demands of Columbus for himself were high. He seems to 
have been an ambitious man — anxious to form a family with 
hereditary titles and honors. 

The prejudices of the times were against the enterprise. 
Grant the theory of the burning zone to be dispelled by 
the African voyages, it was evident that a ship disappear- 
ing in the distance seemed to be going down hill, and could 
it ever return sailing up hill ? Columbus' son, Ferdinand, 
names this as an argument used with force. There were 
other vague dangers and real ones, too. The vessels were 
small and awkward — hardly fit to beat against the wind, and 
the compass not long known to Europe. The means of get- 
ting latitude and longitude were poor indeed, and the worms 
of^ warm latitudes ate through the unprotected wood. 

Columbus himself on his third voyage wrote that his 
vessels " were so eaten by the teredo they could scarcely be 
kept above water." 

The matter was referred to a number of cosmographers of 
supposed learning who condemed the scheme as visionary. 

At the end of the eleven years, tired Columbus sent his 
brother to France and England while he went to Spain, but 
it was still seven years before Ferdinand and Isabella, busy 
in wars and slow of faith, were to help him. 

His adventures were romantic, touching, and have been 
often told. It was even true that stopping with his son at 
a monastery he interested a monk who had been father con- 
fessor to the queen, and who, believing, interested the queen. 

The negotiation was even then broken off and Columbus 
started on his mule for France when he was recalled and the 
bargain was concluded. 

All the romantic story of Queen Isabella being the sapport 
of the enteri^rise is true. 

Columbus himself in 1500 wrote, "All proved incredulous 
except the Queen to whom the Lord gave the spirit of intel- 



— 9 — 

ligence and the necessary courage and made her heiress of 
all as a dear and well beloved daughter. I went to take 
possession in her royal name." 

On Friday, Aug. 3, 1492, he set sail with three vessels. 
He ran first south until he reached the latitude upon which 
he expected to find Japan (Cipango) and Chinese cities 
beyond. They then turned to the west. Columbus kept two 
reckonings one to exhibit and one for himself. Yet there 
was much trouble. 

The story is familiar, and the first land was seen Friday, 
October 12, 1492, or new style on October 21st, to-day, just 
four hundred years ago. 

I am not going to linger over his voyage, or his trouble. 
He had in his opinion found Asia and named the east coast 
of Cuba "Alpha and Omega" — Alpha by the new and Omega 
by the old route. Having stopped at Portugal on the way 
for safety from storms, he reached Palos on the 15th of 
March, 1493. 

Columbus was the hero of the time, and expectation of 
wealth from commerce was immense. Admiral Columbus 
sailed again from Cadiz, Sept. 25, 1493, and instead of 3 
ships and 90 men he had 17 ships and 1,500 men. He re- 
newed his vow to rescue the Holy Sepulchre with an army 
of 50,000 foot and 4,000 horse, to be followed in 7 years by 
another as large. The second expedition reached land on 
the 3rd November. Various of the West India Islands were 
.discovered. Columbus hoped to reach the Ganges and 
circumnavigate the globe but the crews were unwilling. In 
June, 1496, he had returned to Spain, and after waiting a 
month was kindly received. 

The third expedition started May 30, 1498, carrying in six 
ships 200 men besides the sailors. 

In this voyage he passed along the main shore of the con- 
tinent at the mouth of the Orinoco, and, by the amount of 
fresh water, guessed the land to be large. But it was more 
necessary to success to find gold than] to trace a continent. 
Indeed, this was for him a most unfortunate voyage. His 
various unfortunate adventures are dramatically set forth by 



— 10 — 

Irving and Fiske. In fact, no statement could make them 
undramatic. Boabdilla, fresh from Spain, and claiming 
authority from royal commission, aiter Columbus had en- 
countered much trouble, and distress and hardship, sent him 
home to Spain in disgrace and in chains. 

It was a time of intense humiliation. "I have now reached 
that point," wrote Columbus, "that there is no man so vile, 
but thinks it his right to insult me. But,'" said he, "the day 
will come when the world will reckon it as a virtue to him 
who has not given his consent to their abuse."' 

Columbus had a stately presence — tall, well proportioned, 
with a ruddy complexion, keen eyes and white hair; and the 
figure of the discoverer, passing bound in chains through 
the streets of Cadiz, in December, 1500, awakened universal 
sympathy. He was released at once, and on the 11th of May, 
1502, started on his last voyage, with four small vessels of 
from 50 to 70 tons each, and 150 men. He expected to reach 
Cochin China. He reached Honduras, and for the second 
time touched the continent, and this time a considerable civ- 
ilizalion. Columbus returned to Jamaica and sufi:ered a ter- 
rible year. On the 7th of November, 1504, he landed in 
Spain. His friend. Queen Isabella, was on her dj^ing bed. 
Her death left his enemies powerful. He spent eighteen 
months in sickness and poverty and died at Valladolid, May 
20, 1506. " So little heed," says Mr. Fiske, " was taken of 
his passing away, that the local annals of that city, which 
give almost every insignificant event from 1333 to 1539 day 
by day, do not mention it." 

A letter written to Ferdinand and Isabella relating the 
events of his last voyage, sets forth his feelings while on 
the voyage and they may well have continued the same to 
his death. 

"I am indeed in as ruined a condition as I have related — 
hitherto I have wept over others, may Heaven now have 
mercy upon me and may the earth weep for me. * * 

Solitary in my trouble, sick and in daily expectation ot 
death, surrounded by millions of hostile savages, full of 
cruelty, and thus separated from the blessed sacraments ot 



— 11— 

our Holy Church, how will my soul be forgotten jf it be 
separated from the body in this foreign land. Weep for me 
whoever has charity, truth and justice. 

"I did not come out on this voyage to gain to myself houor 
or wealth ; this a certain fact, for at that time all hope of 
such a thing was dead. I do not lie when I say that I went 
to your Highness with honest purpose of heart and sincere 
zeal in your cause. I humbly beseech your Highness that if 
it please God to rescue me from this place you will graciously 
sanction my pilgrimage to Rome and other holy places." 

" Done in the Indies, in the Island of Jamaica, on the 7th 
of July, in the year one thousand five hundred and three." 

Columbus had some prophetic glimpse of the future. He 
said: 

" I must be re-established in reputation and spoken ot 
throughout the universe, for the things I have done are such 
that they must gain day by day in the estimation of man- 
kind." 

At the end of 400 years from the lauding at the first voyage 
he has so many and such honors as have never been bestowed 
upon any man. 

Columbus was really a man of great qualities and his 
memory is not simply great by accident. In connection 
with his name has been much discussion of the undoubted 
previous Icelandic discovery at the north. That discovery, 
in my opinion, detracts not at all from his merit, and has 
nothing to do with the event we commemorate. It is plain 
from the arguments adduced by Messrs. Harrisse, Winsor 
and Fiske, that he knew nothing of that discovery. It was 
an accidental and dead matter. It would have helped him 
in argument in the long eighteen years of urging from 1474 
to 1492. 

Columbus never knew that he had discovered a continent 
previously unknown. His object was a new route to the East 
Indies. Disappointed at first in not finding cities and wealth, 
he persevered still to find Asia. It seems quite curious, but 
on proper understanding was not so much so, that on his "sec- 



— 12 — 

ond voyage all, at his suggestion, signed a paper and made 
solemn oath that they had reached the coast of Asia. 

The merit of Columbus was not from accident but that he 
was most intelligent and learned as a seaman and as a 
geographer of his age : that coming to his conclusion for 
the best of reasons — far beyond the comprehension of most 
— that he with energy and persistance for many years urged 
the attempt, that with greater courage than any other he 
undertook the unknown voyage, where no man had ever 
been, that undaunted by treachery, by sickness, by prison 
and chains, by poverty and disgrace, he persisted in his 
undertaking. 

These qualities are much higher to be praised than the 
mere accident of what land he struck and, indeed, his con- 
clusions were those best warranted by the times. Had he 
been ignorant he would have been more likely to have 
guessed correctly. 

The gift of America to civilized man was a strange one 
to be made at so late a day in the world's history. 

I said at start it was the greatest gift of Providence save 
the gift of Christianity. The very lateness of the discovery 
added vastly to its value. If the life of man is more than 
mere living, more than meat and drink, this continent has 
been of surpassing value. 

Yet those parts now of least value were then the greatest. 
The search was for gold and silver, and all the present centre 
of empire was neglected. ' 

The march even of discovery was slow. In 1535, forty- 
three years after 1492, the mouth of the St. Lawrence was 
found. 

In 115 years after 1492 the first settlement was made in 
Virginia. 

In 128 years after 1492 the first 'settlement was made in 
New England. 

It was 123 years after 1492 that the first of the Great 
Lakes (Huron) was discovered by Champlain. 



— 13 — 

In 1744 (252 years) the best of draughtsmen of maps — 
Bellin of Paris — said of the south coast of Lake Erie, on 
his map of 4t : " Toute cette coste n'est presque point 
connue/' 

" All this coast is nearly unknown." The very title of the 
land on which we stand — hardly a quarter across the con- 
tinent — grew from a grant made in 1660, (168 years), sup- 
posing that the American continent did not reach so far. 

It is said this error arose from ideas at the Isthmus of 
Darian, where the lands are narrow, and Columbus on his 
fourth voyage was told the other ocean was near by. The 
continent, when learned to be one, was long represented as 
very narrow, and even La Salle, in 1670, was seeking a course 
to the South Sea, and it is said Lachine, at Montreal, was 
named in derision of his search for China. Even 100 years 
ago — after three quarters of our four hundred years had 
passed — very, very little was known of Ohio. 

The course of the lake was unknown and the Connecti- 
cut Land Company agreeing to give, to stifle the competi- 
tion of its rival — the Excess Company — all over 3,000,000 of 
acres in the Western Reserve, found its own possessions 
were not so much. 

Having taken three hundred years to reach this point, 
what has the last hundred years accomplished ? More people 
in Ohio hear of Columbus than all the inhabitants of the 
United States at the Revolution. 

The State that has in the last thirty years furnished more 
Presidents arid Generals than any other State, and so many 
able and eminent business men, and travelers, may well claim 
a place at the head. 

The whole time from the first settlement of Ohio is within 
the actual life time of a person lately deceased near us.*^ And 
almost within the life time of one of the founders of Oberlin 
who has this week celebrated, in Berea, her centennial 
birthday.f 



*NoTE. — Martin Kellogg, bora 1786, and lately deceased, in Bronson, O. 
fMrs. Lydia Brewer Ingei-soll. 



/ 



— 14 — 

From complete savagery-— through settlements, collisions, 
wars, houses, roads, canals, railroads and electricity are all 
within that life time. What a rapid development of the 
life and history of man. 

It is the glory of Columbus that he was the greatest dis- 
coverer in the world. The years succeeding him saw many 
men and most of the nations of Europe striving to excel in 
discovery — to share its honors, its pleasures and its profits. 

The pleasure of discovery is within the knowledge of all 
of us. We all and always like new places, new travel, new 
experiences, to go where no one else has gone, to learn what 
no one else has learned. Yet we hardly realize how much 
it enters into our pleasures. 

In Mr. Hamerton's Unknown River he says truly that 
the truest change and best novelty is " especially in the zest 
of free and personal discovery." 

The authorities who have appointed this holiday have 
indicated that Discovery day is to be an educational day. 

I think the best lesson of the day is that the age of dis- 
covery is not over, that historj' is nowhere so open to indi- 
vidual reward. 

The lessons of history are in contrasts, its romance in un- 
expected growth and events, its crowning glory is such de- 
velopment, in so short a time as we have in Ohio. 

These contrasts are vivid even in the memory of the liv- 
ing and the whole hundred years of history here is of easy 
study. 

The study of one locality — say the Reserve — its history in 
discovery, in geography, in wars, in contrasts, in civilization, 
is as worthy and as easy for the historical voyager as any in 
the world. It is like the study of nature, and if the student 
will not burden his mind with too many dates, but will com- 
mence with an investigation small enough at first he is sure 
to be pleased. 

Two of your teachers to my knowledge have used this 
country to excellent purpose in science. One has made the 
world look at Plumb Creek to learn how long since the Ice 
Period. 



— 15 — 

I am sorry the old lady has proved so unsteady in her old 
age as to inspire some want of confidence. I have this sum- 
mer been in distant lands with another who finds much in 
Lorain county, and much to connect that distant land in geo- 
logical history with this. 

Scienee and history lie all about us. 

The man best learned knows what is or has been about 
him and enjoys life the best. He gets most profit and most 
pleasure. 

That the present pursuit of history has partly the pleasure 
of discovery results from the change of views and methods 
of very recent years. 

Mr. Spencer, in his little work on education, says : "That 
which constitutes history properly so called is in great part 
omitted from works on that subject." " In past histories the 
doings ot the king fills the entire picture to which the 
national life forms but an obscure background." " That 
which really concerns us to know is the national history of 
society." 

Mr. Spencer enlarges upon this in an essay well worth 
reading but too long to use. 

In a wide sense history is the relation of all past experi- 
ence. Every scientist has to go to history whether it has 
that name or not. The politician does not go there enough. 
Mr. Freeman has said "that history is but past politics and 
that past politics are present history"; too narrow a defini- 
tion, not observed by Mr. Freeman in practice, or his writ- 
ings would not be so interesting. 

Better is the definition of Thucydides : "History is philo- 
sophy teaching by example." 

That history is really the most valuable which is at the 
same time most interesting and open to discovery, that which 
in some way touches our lives or something that is around 
us or concerns us. 

In old days biography had charms which history lacked, 
because there was in it more life and a closer touch with 
human nature. But there is no reason why history should 
not have these charms, and every reason why it should. 



— 16 — 

I have said elsewhere that he who knows well any past 
time of his own locality, has traveled abroad. To even learn 
from one's grandmother how people lived iifty years ago, is 
history — how they dressed, what they wore, who made it, 
of what material or fashion or kind ; what education, what 
books were read, how much ; what daily occupation to each ; 
what was talked of, how and where; what was eaten, how 
different from now, how prepared ; what feelings as to reli- 
gion, or to diff'erence of views. 

Anyone who would from such information make a full 
picture of life in any locality, would make a valuable con- 
tribution to history. 

The discoveries of Columbus have led to such results as 
only Omniscience could have foreseen. 

I have intimated that the educational value of the results 
is above all other save religion. The civilization of South- 
ern Europe grew largely from the collision of different 
nation^ civilized and uncivilized around the Mediterranean 
Sea. 

So collision with the barbarians at the north, (our ancestors), 
led to their civilization. It is less than ffve times the four 
hundred years since Caesar landed where Britons were sava- 
ges. Only two and a half times that since William con- 
quered Britain and the life of the English nation com- 
menced. 

But by the time of the discovery, Europe was well settled. 
Where was the evolutionary field for fresh and rapid educa- 
tion in life, manners and government? Where but in the 
New World, given to the Old by Columbus? 

Discoveries and settlements were made by different nations 
in different zones at different times and with different purposes. 

The minute history of the diff'ering colonies has been often 
related. Pilgrims and Puritans, Catholics, Calvinists, Church 
of England, Baptists and Quakers dominated in different 
colonies. The constitutions of no two were alike. There 
were English, Dutch and Swedes. 

Even the Puritans dwelt so long in Holland that their 
polity was strongly colored by that abode. The town gov- 



— 17 — 

ernments of New England and the colonial governments of 
New England and elsewhere gave constant opportunity for 
education in government, and such individual responsibility 
and care as made that education certain and practical. 

The colonies, in a wild land with savage enemies, learned 
to care for themselves and the uninimitv with which thir- 
teen colonies so differing in tone of life and religion, joined 
in a declaration, to the rest of the world, that they were in- 
dependent was strange. 

There were many experiments before that in finance, poli- 
tical economy and government. 

Our constitution was made by the wisest legislators that 
ever lived, because they went to the best school of govern- 
ment that ever existed. The confederation with its weak 
form of government grew stronger from force of evolution. 
It needed to be stronger. 

Since — how many different confederacies, how many dif- 
ferent views, carried also, at last to such bloody issues. 

Where in the world was there ever such a university of 
history. Where such experiences in manners or morals, in 
ruling or in religion, in business life and in all that can 
interest man. 

In short this discovery of Columbus has led to vast de- 
velopment in half a globe — to the evolution of the best gov-- 
ernments and most experience in affairs in a hemisphere of 
highest civilization, with many wealthy and populous 
nations. 

This history is no barren thing. The nation pays a wise 
and a proper tribute to the overruling wisdom of Divine 
Providence — acting through an agent wise in the learning 
of his day and persistent in business, courageous and bold 
in act, whose life in itself is a worthy study and incentive, 
whose very merits led to misfortune in his own life, the 
glory he so wished coming long after his decease. 

There are no more such worlds to conquer, and the 
achievement and its results must ever be without a parallel. 






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